Feaverish Photography Blog

I first saw Elizabeth Weinberg‘s photography in my girlfriend’s NYLON magazine, and was instantly drawn to the simple beauty of the portraits. Uncluttered, casual and perfectly lit, they were like some kind of Platonic ideal of a portrait, the kind that’s so hard to pull off in real life. We sat down over IM to talk about how she got into photography, how she works, and where she hopes to go.

Aaron: Hi Elizabeth. You’re a freelance photographer, right?

Elizabeth: Yep.

Aaron: How long have you been doing it?

Elizabeth: It was only this year that I made any money, but I have been at it since I graduated five years ago, and more seriously in the last two years.

Aaron: Before you were just doing it on the side?

Elizabeth: Well, I never wanted it to be on the side, but I needed to pay rent too!

Aaron: Haha, sure. Did you study photography in school?

Elizabeth: Photojournalism.

Aaron: Ah, cool. What would call the style of photography you do now?

Elizabeth: I guess photojournalism in some respects, portraiture/lifestyle in others. Photojournalism was the only major my university had for photography.

Aaron: Oh I see. Well, can we talk a little about how you got started? What was your first real job?

Elizabeth: I shot behind the scenes during the recording of Ben Kweller’s self-titled album in early ’06. Then I ended up licensing the images for a decent amount of money (for me, at the time) to be used in the album packaging. CMJ Mag helped me cut my teeth on editorial music portraits, and HEEB has helped me out a lot in the past couple of years, as has NYLON. Any job I got in the beginning was pretty much been through someone I knew or someone they knew. Only recently have they come out of nowhere, which is rad.

Aaron: You shoot a lot of musicians, and a lot of friends, and I was wondering if your approach to the two differs?

Elizabeth: I think it does whether I want it to or not, but I’m less timid about asking strangers to move around where I want them to go than I used to be. My friends are so used to me with a camera that they aren’t self-conscious.

Aaron: Do you do a lot of setup for a shoot? Or give much direction?

Elizabeth: No real setup. I don’t like elaborate sets. I do give a lot more direction than I used to. I used to not know how to direct anyone and then I’d be frustrated that the photos weren’t looking how I wanted. Then I realized, what the hell is wrong with me, this is my job! I’m not a shy person at all, and I was becoming shy in front of my subjects. I learned to check that, thankfully.

Aaron: Do you get much resistance?

Elizabeth: Not really. Some people are really uptight, but it’s easy to work around it.

Aaron: Do you have, I guess, a philosophy of portraiture? For lack of a better term…

Elizabeth: I’m not sure…I try not to think about the process all that much, because every situation ends up being so different.

Aaron: Maybe I should ask how you know when you’ve got what you wanted?

Elizabeth: I guess I just know when it’s right. That sounds sort of self-righteous but I like pictures for all different reasons. Catching the right light, the angle of someone’s face, the composition and use of background, etc. And sometimes it just works and I don’t know why.

Aaron: Sure, that makes sense. I like that you shoot a LOT of photos. or at least, on your Flickr page, there are a lot of photos.

Elizabeth: Hah yeah, my flickr page showcases about 0.005% of the pictures I take. I’ll do like 300 and put up one. (I got the math wrong but you get the picture.) It’s the one that you present that’s awesome that people will remember, not 50 okay ones.

Aaron: Have you done many fashion shoots?

Elizabeth: Not many, a few, but I like them. When I started working for NYLON it was all front-of-book fashion stuff. The images are pretty much all about the clothes and not the person wearing them AT ALL. So it’s like the opposite of a portrait. It’s like you have a blank page.

Aaron: How do you mean, a blank page? Because the ones I’m thinking of, they seem very portrait-y. This one, for instance.

Elizabeth: Well it depends on the type of fashion shoot. Editorial vs. lookbooks and stuff. That was actually an outtake that never ran, but I liked the light and the hammock a lot. It isn’t really about the clothes there. It’s confusing though because some things about them are the same. Like, I want to make a beautiful picture all the time. With fashion I want it to look fantastic obviously, but the models are supposed to be beautiful. You know, styled, made-up etc., so it’s easier to make them look flawless. I think some of my fashion stuff may be pretty but it can look soulless because it’s just about the clothes and the model looking blankly at me. But some editorial stuff is fun because I can play with compositions and make the model do things I’d do in my normal portraits.

Aaron: Do you feel like it’s soulless because that’s what the magazine wants? Like they don’t want as much personality coming through because it’s supposed to be about the clothes? Or more because it’s models?

Elizabeth: The models are trained to sort of do that deadpan model look, you know. Like when I was doing stuff for NYLON it was just a particular look against a wall; completely about the clothes. I don’t think it’s fair to really call it soulless because it has a purpose—they’re fashion looks! You need to be able to see the clothes. I think editorial fashion is just an entirely different beast with more opportunities to play around. I haven’t done much of it but I think that’s where I’d have more fun. Environments, use of motion, activities. Combining it with a lifestyle element. Like Urban Outfitters or Free People catalogs.

Aaron: Yeah I love those.

Elizabeth: They look like a blast to shoot, too.

Aaron: For sure. Do you shoot mostly digital?

Elizabeth: These days, yeah.

Aaron: Do you prefer one or the other? Or is it more just a matter of convenience? Because looking at your photos there’s not a big difference between the two.

Elizabeth: I love film, but it’s not always convenient in terms of getting things turned around on time. So I figured out how to make my digital pictures as close to film as I could.

Aaron: Are there any other styles of photography that you’d like to do? Besides the Urban Outfitters catalog?

Elizabeth: I’d like to do more documentary work for editorial publications, instead of just portraits — immersion in a situation to do an actual photo story.

Aaron: Something that takes a little while.

Elizabeth: Yeah. Not 15-minute portraits.

Aaron: Are most of your portrait sessions pretty short?

Elizabeth: Yeah, really short. Rarely longer than 30 minutes.

Aaron: Oh wow. That’s a lot of pressure.

Elizabeth: Eh I don’t think of it like that. Shooting quickly doesn’t really bother me. I enjoy the challenge.

Aaron: Your subjects seem so relaxed, like you’ve been hanging out all day.

Elizabeth: I guess that’s generally because there’s not too much hubbub surrounding them. Mostly just me or very rarely a couple other people.

Aaron: Do you try to isolate them before you take their picture?

Elizabeth: Not necessarily. Sometimes that’s just how it works out. A lot of times I’ll just ride my bike to their house with my camera. Or they come to my studio and it’s just us.

Aaron: How did you first get into photography?

Elizabeth: I guess by going to shows and wanting to shoot them. My sister is 15 years younger than me and I’d take a lot of pictures of her as she grew.

Aaron: Oh so right from the start you wanted to shoot concerts? That’s so cool. What was it about them that appealed to you? I mean, had you seen concert photos that you really liked?

Elizabeth: I never really thought about it. I guess it was just a way for me to get up front. I was 16 or 17. I definitely have no interest in shooting concerts anymore unless it’s part of a larger body of work, like behind the scenes on a tour. The market is just saturated.

Aaron: I really like the portrait you did of Mia Kirshner. How did that come about?

Elizabeth: It was for HEEB. The location was the lounge area of this swanky apartment building near wall street. I had no ideas in mind before I got there. The place was nicely lit. It was art directed pretty heavily so a lot of it was composed in a certain way.

Aaron: Do you have any exciting shoots coming up?

Elizabeth: I am doing a portrait and documentary shoot for a medical institute coming up. Should be interesting as it’s not my normal subject matter. I just got back from two weeks in California where I shot in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Lake Tahoe. I’m still working on editing those photos, perhaps for a small zine. It’s hard to find the time to make something printed come to fruition but now that I have my own studio it’s a lot easier to find the space and frankly the drive to work on my own projects. I have a couple of collaborations with models and illustrators coming up that I’m psyched about. It’s been a bit of a break in assignment work which is sort of nice in that I can regroup from a busy year and get some personal projects rolling.

A big thanks to Elizabeth for taking the time to answer my questions, and be sure to check out her portfolio, Flickr page and blog for the other 99.995% of her wonderful photos.